Safety lamp guard



Sept. 5, 1939. c. H. RIBBLE 2,172,223

SAFETY LAMP GUARD Filed June 2, 1937 EN TOR Chauncg .Rlbble BY M GMwATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 5, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SAFETY LAMPGUARD Chauncey H. Ribble, Hackensack, N. J.

Application June 2, 1937, Serial No. 145,940

4 Claims. (Cl. 240-54) This invention relates to a safety lamp guard,their lower ends have secured to their outer an object of the inventionbeing to provide imfaces semi-circular strips It, which at theirupproved coupling means between the lamp cage per edges are providedwith inclined flanges I5. and the handle, said'coupling means eliminat-The handle B is of semi-soft rubber and is -5 ing the use of bolts,screws, and other similar longitudinally cored, as shown at It, for theac- 5 devices, and requiring no tools or external securcommodation ofelectric wires, and in the haning medium whatever. dle a lamp socket I!is located. This lamp socket A further object is to provide a guard ofthis H is provided at its inner end with a block I8 character in whichthe cage may be readily couwhich has flattened faces I9 and correspondsin 10 pled to the handle or uncoupled therefrom whenshape to the shapeof the interior or core of 10 ever desired. the handle so as to preventany turning move- The invention embodies many novel features ment of thesocket in the handle. The end of of construction and combinations andarrangethe handle B is provided with a circular groove ments of parts,all of which will be more fully 20 and the outer wall of this groove 28is formed hereinafter described and pointed out in the with an inwardlyprojecting flange 2| which is un- 15 claims. dercut or beveled on itsinner face as shown at 22.

In the accompanying drawing The bottom wall of this groove 23 isprovided Fig. 1 is a View in longitudinal section of with a circularseries of upwardly projecting remy improved safety lamp guard; j"silient webs 23 and an annular resilient web 24 Fig. 2 is a view intransverse section of the is formed on the inner wall of the groove. go

lamp cage, the view being taken on the line 2-2 When the cage is innormal position the ends of Fig. 3; of the wires I 3 abut so that anyinward move- Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view in longitudinal ment of thelower ends of the wires It is resisted section on the line 3-3 of Fig.2; V by the spring action of the wires which tend to 25 Fig. 4 is anenlarged fragmentary detail view spring outwardly.

in section showing the coupling means between v The operation ofcoupling and uncouplingthe the cage and handle; a a cage and handle suchas above described is as 5 s a fragmentary w n section n t follows: Theoperator grips the lower portions line 55 of Fig. 4; of the wires l0pressing them toward each other 6 s a view in transverse section on theand while thus held a longitudinal movement of 30 e -5 o the cagerelative to the handle is imparted to F 7 s a fr mentary vi w n i n simir the cage so as to force the strips l4 and the o illustratingmodification; lower ends of the wires I0 into the groove 20,

g. 8 is a fragmentary p pective V ew Of the and when the strips l4engage the resilient webs cage member shown in Fig. 7. 23 they compresssaid webs slightly until the 35' The reference character A is employedto inflanged upper edges of the strips are in posidicate generally theopen lamp receiving and protion to ride under the flange 2i of thehandle tecting cage of my improved guard, and the refand when in thisposition the annular resilient erence character B is employed toindicate ge-nweb 24 tends to force the strips outwa d y- This erally thehandle to which the cage is coupled. movement is also augmen e by thespring tend- 40 The cage embodying the preferred form of ency of thewires ll! so that the upper edges of the invention includes a circularseries of outthe strips l4 engage under the flange 2| and Wardly bowedspring wires H] which are at their securely Couple t e d handletogetherupper ends movably coupled to a disk H, and When it is desiredto uncouple the cage from 5 the latter is provided with a hook l2 asshown. e handle, it is necessary to again g the 46 These longitudinalspring wires in are divided 1o er p s o t wires it moving m tointo twogroups, and each group has secured Ward each other and at the same timeexertthereto a semi-circular wire [3. The wires l3 ing a ward pressurethereon so as to Perextend transversely around the cage and normalmitthe strips I4 to move from under the flange 50 1y have their endsabutting so that when the 2|, and when this is uncoupled the end of the60 lower ends of the wires are moved inwardly they cage can be drawn outof the groove 20. Thus have a tendency to expand outwardly when rethecoupling and uncoupling of the cage and leased. This provision of thegroups of wires handle can be easily and quickly effected, and enablesthem to be separated so as to position when once coupled will besecurely held.

a lamp in the cage. The groups of wires III at In Figs. 7 and 8 Iillustrate my invention in 5:

connection with a cage which is composed of fibrous strips 25 instead ofthe wires 10. When a fiber cage is employed blocks 26 may be secured tothe lower ends of the strips 25 and provided with beveled upper edges 21so that when these blocks and also the ends of the strips are forcedinto the groove 20, they will have an outward spring tension to causethe blocks 25 to engage under the flange 2| and securely couple theblocks together.

While I have illustrated and described what I believe to be a preferredembodiment of my invention, it is obvious that various changes may bemade with regard to the form and arrangement of parts without departingfrom my invention, and hence I do not limit myself to the precisedetails set forth but consider myself at liberty to make such changesand alterations as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of theclaims.

I claim:

1. A safety lamp guard including an open lamp cage having an expansibleinner end, a handle having a circular groove in its end and an inwardlyprojecting flange on the outer wall of the groove, the inner end of saidguard adapted when manually contracted to enter the groove, and deviceson the inner end of the guard adapted when the inner end of the guard isexpanded to interlockingly engage said flange.

2. A safety lamp guard including an open lamp cage and handle of softrubber, said cage comprising a plurality of groups of spring Wires,means coupling the groups of wires at the outer end of the guard,normally separated curved strips connecting the inner ends of each groupof wires, transverse wires secured to each group intermediate their endsand adapted to abut when the guard is closed and require pressure on theinner ends of the groups to bring the ends of the strips together whenthe inner end of the guard is contracted, said handle having a circulargroove in its end of a diameter corresponding to the diameter of theinner end of the cage when contracted, and an inwardly projectingannular flange at the end of the handle back of which the strips projectwhen the inner end of the handle is in the groove and permitted toexpand.

3. A safety lamp guard including an open lamp cage and handle of softrubber, said cage comprising a plurality of groups of spring wires,means coupling the groups of wires at the outer end of the guard,normally separated curved strips connecting the inner ends of each groupof wires, transverse wires secured to each group intermediate their endsand adapted to abut when the guard is closed and require pressure on theinner ends of the groups to bring the ends of the strips together whenthe inner end of the guard is contracted, said handle having a circulargroove in its end of a diameter corresponding to the diameter of theinner end of the cage when contracted, and an inwardly projectingannular flange at the end of the handle back of which the strips projectwhen the inner end of the handle is in the groove and permitted toexpand, said flange and strips having interengaging contact portionswhen the guard is coupled into engagement with the handle.

4. A safety lamp guard including an open lamp cage and handle of softrubber, said cage comprising a plurality of groups of spring wires,means coupling the groups of wires at the outer end of the. guard,normally separated curved strips connecting the inner ends of each groupof wires, transverse wires secured to each group intermediate their endsand adapted to abut when the guard is closed and require pressure on theinner ends of the groups to bring the ends of the strips together whenthe inner end of the guard is contracted, said handle having a circulargroove in its end of a diameter corresponding to the diameter of theinner end of the cage when contracted, and an inwardly projectingannular flange at the end of the handle back of which the strips projectwhen the inner end of the handle is in the groove and permitted toexpand, said flange and strips having inter-engaging contact portionswhen the guard is coupled into engagement with the handle, and aresilient Web'on a wall of the groove maintaining the strips and flangein engagement.

CHAUNCEY H. RIBBLE.

